


Rocky Beginnings

by EmoPenguin



Category: SK8 the Infinity (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, M/M, Poor Tadashi, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, fuck adam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 06:41:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30135546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmoPenguin/pseuds/EmoPenguin
Summary: Most people are born with an animal, that can turn into a tattoo form and is supposed to help them find their soulmate--------------------Kojiro is pretty sure he's already in love with his new classmate. Could they be soulmates?
Relationships: (one sided) Kikuchi Tadashi/Shindo Ainosuke | Adam, Nanjo Kojiro | Joe & Sakurayashiki Kaoru | Cherry Blossom & Shindo Ainosuke | Adam, Nanjo Kojiro | Joe/Sakurayashiki Kaoru | Cherry Blossom
Comments: 4
Kudos: 68





	1. The new kid in class

"My name is Kaoru Sakurayashiki. I like skateboarding and calligraphy. I moved here because of my mother’s job.”

The knew student in class immediately caught Kojiro’s attention. He was absolutely stunning. Pink, long hair and various piercings, especially the one in his lip, were almost enough for him not to notice a big, green tiger sitting next to the awkwardly introducing himself boy. Almost.

"Very well. Sakurayashiki-kun, can you please turn your tiger into a tattoo form? In my class soulmate animals are not allowed to run freely.”

The boy looked at the teacher, seemingly considering the option.

"He’s not going to cause problems. He listens to me.”

"I have no doubt of this, it’s just a rule here. And you are not an exception.”

"In the whole Japan, soulmate animals are allowed to walk freely, as long as they are not causing problems. Joe doesn’t feel good being forced into a tattoo form. Didn’t you hear that the way you treat your soulmate animal reflects the way you’ll treat the soulmate themself?”

It took a while for the teacher to reply.

"Fine. Your tiger can stay in this form. But the second it causes problems, you’re being sent to the principal’s office. Sit down now.”

And so Sakurayashiki moved to sit under a window, followed by Nanjo’s curious eyes. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but the green tiger could very well represent him. And the small, pink, elegant weasel sleeping currently on his arm definitely fit the new boy. Was he lucky enough to meet his soulmate in high school, just like his best friend?

"Stop starring at him,” Shindo whispered over his book. "Even if he’s your soulmate, you’re gonna scare him off like this.”

"Do you think he might be my soulmate?”

"Your personality could be represented by a tiger, I guess,” the light blue haired boy finally looked at him. "You have the same hair color. And he’s obviously very clingy and energetic, since he doesn’t want to leave the guy’s side and he doesn’t like being in a tattoo form. At least according to Sakurayashiki, everything so far seems to work in favor of him being your soulmate.”

"How are you so sure that you met are soulmate, anyway? Did you feel it or something? I mean, there are plenty of people that could be represented by a snake or a parrot.”

"It’s mostly the reaction of the animals to each other. Most of them are neutral towards each other, but mine and Tadashi's for example are always really friendly with each other. Honestly, if your weasel and his tiger even react to each other, it can be as good an implication as anything.”

It did make some sense. Soulmate animals, even if they are let to run around freely, usually ignore each other. So he had to see if the tiger, apparently named _Joe_ by Sakurayashiki, would react to the pink, nameless weasel. Easy. And scary, since Nanjo was pretty sure he was already in love with the pretty boy.

When the bell rang, the green haired boy quickly moved towards the new student.

"I’m Nanjo Kojiro,” he stated, leaning on the other boy’s desk.

That earned him a judging look, Kaoru visibly not very pleased with the interruption.

"Sakurayashiki Kaoru,” his voice was calm, emotionless and, to Kojiro at least, beautiful.

"You like calligraphy, right?” that was not the part of Sakurayashiki’s introduction that Kojiro wanted to talk about.

"Yes.”

"Well, that is not something we have in common.” that earned him a small grimace, which he definitely counted as a small victory - it was really hard to get a reaction out of that guy. "But I like skating! You said you did, too, right?”

"I did.”

"Do you want to come to a cool skating place after school? It’s not very far and since you just moved here, you probably don’t know where to go. I mean, I’m sure you’re very capable of finding good places yourself, but-„

"Okay.”

"Okay?”

"Why not? If it’s not that good, I’ll just never come back. And if it’s good, I can practice. I don’t see any downsides.”

That was exactly the kind of a matter-of-fact reply that Nanjo was slowly learning to anticipate from the boy.

For the next five hours he couldn’t help but look at Sakurayashiki every ten minutes. And if he was bold enough to voice this, he’d say that his look was reciprocated a few times.

When the final bell rang, Nanjo was already by Sakurayashiki’s side, patiently waiting for him to pack his things.

"I have my board in my locker room. Do you have yours with you?”

Kaoru simply nodded, not looking at the green haired boy’s overexcited face.

When they got to the lockers, Kojiro took his old, plain board and looked at Kaoru, who was holding what looked like some kind of a keyboardless computer shaped like a board.

"What is this?”

"My board.”

"It doesn’t look like a board.”

The boy sighed and rolled his eyes, probably already wishing he hadn’t said yes to any of this.

"It has an AI of my coding, that helps me skate.”

"An AI? You mean there’s a computer in your board that tells you what to do? That is not skating.”

"Carla is not just some computer,” Sakurayashiki looked genuinely angry and maybe a little bit hurt at Nanjo’s statement. "And I do skate myself, she doesn’t control the board. I can take turns with my eyes closed, if I tell her to count down and calculate the angle I need to take. She has a GPS, so that I can comfortably skate in unknown to me places. I’m still working on her, but when I’m done, she’ll be able to tell the most efficient route to take based on the length, the amount of turns and the surface. It’s still skating, just more… Efficient.”

The green haired boy looked in shock as the slightly more skinny boy finally broke his stoical facade.

"Okay,” even he knew when to take a step back. "How about a race, then? At the place I’m about to show you. Not today, of course, I’ll let you get acquainted with everything first, but in a few days?”

He seemed to actually consider it, which was a success on its own.

"Depends on whether or not I like this place.”

When they skated, Kojiro leading the way and Joe running beside them, Kaoru wasn’t really keen on talking. He clearly focused on remembering everything around him, probably not trusting his new acquaintance. Not that any sane person would trust some random, new classmate to show them a _cool skating place._

"Where do you like to skate? I mean, what kind of places?”

"Before we moved out, I would skate in an abandoned skating park. A good place, no people and wild cherry blossoms around. It was a pain when they bloomed, but I got used to it. It’s not that far away, but I can’t just go there after school in the middle of a week, so I definitely need a new one. Is your place far?”

"It’s not, we’re almost there, just… Me and my friend often go to a perfect place for training tricks. It’s less creepy than where I’m taking you now, but I promised you a race, so… We’re going to an abandoned mine.”

"A mine?” Kaoru drew to a halt.

"We don’t have to go there, if you don’t want to. I just… Didn’t really think it through.”

Sakurayashiki looked at him as if he tried to read his mind.

"It’s a set book red flag, dimwit. But fine, show me the place.”

And so, to Nanjo’s surprise, they went to the mine. The pink haired boy complained the whole time about the safety of it all, but he most definitely enjoyed himself. And he was really good. Even taking help of an AI into the equation, the more muscular boy doubted he would be able to do some of the complicated tricks that looked so easy when the other one did them.

It was captivating, especially when Kaoru jumped, looking as if he was flying, with his long hair shining in the sun.

"You’re good.”

"Obviously. You’re not so bad yourself.”

And so they came back the next day. And the day after that. And then Kojiro showed Kaoru the other place he knew, and when the weekend came, Kaoru asked his mother to take them both to his old skating place. Every day they met early in the morning to skate together to school and then stayed together way after dark, sometimes doing their homework and, more often than not in the time when they should be doing their homework, skating.

In school, Nanjo introduced Sakurayashiki to Shindo, and he introduced him to Tadashi - his soulmate. The latter didn’t really become a part of their squad, since he didn’t go with them to school and whenever they met, he only had eyes on his boyfriend, which was annoying to say at least.

Kaoru was amazed when he first saw Shindo skating. To be fair, everyone was. What hurt Kojiro, however, was the fact that the amazement was reciprocated. It was hard to impress someone like the blue haired boy and when someone did, it was easy to feel like you were on top of the world. So when Kojiro slowly started becoming the third wheel, despite Shindo already having a soulmate and Kaoru possibly being his soulmate, it didn’t really come as surprise. Which doesn’t mean it didn't feel like agony.

He never got around to talking with Kaoru about the whole soulmate thing. He sometimes let his weasel run around freely when they skated alone with the pink haired boy, but whenever he did, the tiger was always in a tattoo form, gracing Sakurayashiki’s shoulders.

At that point, it was obvious that the pink haired boy didn’t want the animals to interact.

Was he afraid that they were soulmates? Did he not want Nanjo to be his soulmate for some reason?

The more they got to know each other, the more Kojiro’s life revolved around Kaoru. They bickered constantly and Kaoru had this talent for hurting Kojiro, probably unintentionally, whenever he ignored him for Shindo’s sake, but the whole school knew that they were inseparable. Some people even assumed they were soulmates, one of them being the green haired boy himself.

"Sakurayashiki, can you help me with schoolwork tonight? The exam is tomorrow and I don’t understand… Well, anything, if I’m being honest,” Nanjo rarely asked nicely, but when he did, they both knew the other would agree to anything.

"I can’t, Shindo’s teaching me a new trick today.”

Unless Shindo was involved...

"Oh, I didn’t realize-"

"Didn’t he tell you? I was sure he’d invite you.”

Something like this had happened a few times before. Shindo and Kaoru would go out together and tell Kojiro that both thought the other would inform him. As much as he trusted the boy that he now considered his best friend, he wasn’t so sure about the blue haired one. His oldest friend was starting to act weird, focusing completely on Sakurayashiki and ignoring everything that didn’t satisfy his sick _needs_ when it came to skating, even his soulmate.

Shindo’s soulmate animal - the snake that represented Tadashi - was a weird one. It was grayish or blackish, depending on the lighting, and barely moving, no matter the circumstances. Outside of school, the boy would always wear it around his shoulders and whenever they talked about it, he would ask himself aloud weird questions, like _is it venomous_ or _would it listen to me if I told it to bite someone._

Kojiro developed a weird habit of compering everyone, and how they treated their animal, with Kaoru.

The pink haired boy gave his tiger a name, rarely wore it as a tattoo to give it some freedom and always referred to it by he/him. In general, he treated _Joe_ slightly better than a pet, which was definitely admirable.

Kojiro liked to think that he was not so bad himself. Average, compared to others. He also treated his weasel like a pet, he just didn’t really feel like going against the scary teachers in his school, especially since his grades weren’t as high as Kaoru’s and getting in trouble could be that much worse for him because of it. So he didn’t let his animal run around school so freely. And he didn’t name him. Just like almost everyone with a soulmate animal he knew.

Shindo, however, was the absolute worst out of the people he knew. He still, after all this years, called his snake _it,_ like some wild, unknown animal and he always talked about ways to make it _useful._

Of course, the whole thing with people treating their soulmate the way they treat their animals was just a saying, but… Shindo definitely treated Tadashi the same way he treated his snake. Not that Kojiro had the right to interfere - he wasn’t exactly friend with the quiet boy.

On the other hand, Kaoru recently ignored him more and more too, so either they were not soulmates, or the saying was irrelevant here.


	2. Not alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That's the part where we all say "fuck Adam"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... A warning: there's a small lack of consent in this chapter. It's just a kiss, but it can be triggering to some people, so brace yourself or don't read it. In any case, I wish you a very good day/night
> 
> Also I think it's important to remind you that Joe is the name of the tiger, just to avoid any confusion. 
> 
> Enjoy

"C’mon, Kaoru! You can go higher!”

"Im pretty sure I can’t,” he panted, shaking hands braced on his knees. Shindo looked at him with a grimace of disapproval.

Their jackets laid on the side, guarded by Joe and the snake. Even their animals were exhausted after sniffing around in a far part of the abandoned mine, let alone Kaoru, who was trying to nail the jump for the past five hours.

"Nonsense. You’re here to learn it.”

"It’s hard. And it’s getting dark. I think I should go back. I can try again tomorrow.”

With Kojiro, it was easy to lose track of time. He trusted him and knew, that if anything happened in the dark, the muscular man would not leave his side. With Shindo, he wasn’t so sure if he could, or would, protect him. It was unnerving enough to be with him alone in the mine.

"Just one more time. I believe in you, Kaoru.”

"I'm exhausted. So is Joe. We still have to get home.”

Shindo quietly looked at him for a few seconds, before stepping closer and slightly touching his chin, a new hunger in his eyes. Kaoru’s breath hitched at the proximity.

"What are you doing, Shindo?”

"Relax.” he closed the gap between them, so that their lips almost touched.

"Shindo, stop.”

Kaoru didn’t know how to react when his friend finally connected their lips and only after a few seconds of standing still, he came around and tried to push the boy away, which was not an easy task.

Not that Kaoru wan’t strong, but he definitely wasn’t nearly as strong as his skating friends. So when he fell to the ground, it was because Shindo finally let go of him. He looked down at his body with disgust.

"What is wrong with you, Kaoru?”

"Me?” he squeaked, losing the rest of his dignity. Joe approached him, tapping his hand as if he was asking to be pet and observing the blue haired boy. From where Sakurayashiki was, a low growl in the back of the tiger’s throat was hearable. "What’s wrong with you? What about your soulmate? What about-"

"Yours? Oh please, you obviously don’t care about them. You act as if the tiger’s company will always be more than enough for you. The two of us… We’re good, Kaoru. Who cares about the whole soulmate thing? I am not about to let the universe decide my life for me. After graduation, I’m planning to make this place something great. People will come here to skate. The best of the best. If you decide to be a part of it, we can make wonderful things together! I can be _the_ Adam and you can be my Eve. What will you say?"

"No, thank you. I’m good.”

"Very well,” Shindo said with so much disgust it actually hurt Kaoru. He had watched Shindo drive his skating partners crazy, some of them even ended up in the hospital, but for some reason, even if he couldn’t fully trust him, he believed that what they had was special. Sakurayashiki was the only one that Shindo never before forced to do anything he didn’t want. Now he couldn’t help but wonder… If maybe he just hadn’t realized when he was being manipulated. "I really thought you were a little bit more… Interesting.”

And before Kaoru knew what was happening, Shindo whistled and his snake moved quicker than the pink haired boy had ever seen it do before. It sinked its teeth into his ankle, the cry of pain and fright definitely audible on the other end of the empty mine.

Sakurayashiki didn’t really see what was happening, preoccupied with the blood slowly dripping to the ground, but when he looked up, Shindo’s animal was laying in Joe’s jaws without moving. He suddenly felt sick.

"Shindo, what… I am so sorry. This is-"

"Let me know if it was venomous. If it wasn’t, your tiger did me a favor.”

"That was your soulmate animal…”

"Like I said, who cares about the whole soulmate thing?” Kaoru felt tears on his cheeks when Shindo kneeled down and leaned into him. "The two of us? We’re the same!”

"Don’t touch me, asshole,” he stood up on shaky legs. "Your soulmate still has the parrot. Does it mean…?”

_That he still loves you? That he’s still stuck with you?_

Shindo rolled his eyes and started walking away.

"Don’t die on the street. I’m still curious about that bite.”

An hour later, after a panicked call, Kojiro found Kaoru crying on the ground, hugging Joe and doing everything not to look at the dead snake.

"What happened? Is this Shindo’s snake? What’s with your ankle? Are you okay?”

He dropped to his knees and took the shaking boy into his arms. "I’m here now. You’re safe. Where is Shindo?”

"Probably home. Or wherever assholes like him sleep.”

"Okay, you are definitely filling me up on whatever happened here eventually. But now tell me, what do you need? Should I take you to the hospital?”

"I think so. Shindo doesn’t know whether the snake was venomous or not.”

And so Kojiro took Kaoru’s board in hand and delicately hosted the boy on his back to comfortably carry him to the nearest ER.

There, in the waiting room, he found out exactly what happened. He wasn’t sure if he had ever felt this angry with anyone, let alone someone he had once called his best friend.

The bite turned out not to be venomous and so they were let go, but not without a call to their parents. They’d been in bigger trouble before.

Waiting for Kaoru’s mom to pick them up, the pink weasel played around with Joe and so Kojiro finally took up the topic.

"Sakurayashiki,I think… I think you might be my soulmate. I mean, I’m pretty sure now, but-"

"I know.” Kaoru didn’t even look at him. "I knew since the beginning. It was pretty obvious.”

"Why didn’t you say anything? We could’ve-"

"Because I’m not ready for anything, Nanjo. The whole soulmate thig, it's...” A humorless laugh escaped him, his eyes fixed on something above Kojiro's shoulder.

"You definitely should stop interrupting me.”

"I just answered your question, asshole!”

"Don’t call your soulmate an asshole, idiot!”

"Why should you being my soulmate change anything, you gorilla?”

"Well you might be right for once, as we've learned tonight-"

"Don’t you dare comparing me to this asshole!”

"I wasn’t comparing you to him, you-„

This time, he’s been interrupted by Kaoru’s lips on his own. It was a quick peck, but he felt the smaller boy’s arms wrapping around his neck and he might have as well died right here and there, at the young age of nineteen.

"What happened to not being ready?” Kojiro’s hands gripped his waist, keeping him close even when their lips parted.

"I don’t know. I don’t know what I want, I just…”

"We can take everything as slow as you want… Kaoru. Can I call you _Kaoru_ or…?”

"Yes, you can call me _Kaoru_ , idiot.”

"You just ruined everything.”

"Then why are you still hugging me?”

"Because it’s nice. And I’m pretty sure you were shaking before, so it’s mostly for you. You know, to keep you warm.”

"Oh, so now it’s what? Charity work?”

"Considering your unstoppable tongue, it’s definitely some kind of work.”

"Was that supposed to be some kind of an innuendo?” Kaoru scrunched up his nose at him.

Kojiro blushed furiously.

"No, it wasn’t! You’re impossible.”

"Hey, Kojiro?”

"Yeah?”

"Thank you. For being there for me ever since I moved in. And for carrying me all the way here from the mine. And for-”

"Of course. I’ll always be by your side. You are not alone, Kaoru."


End file.
